


there are no fated goodbyes (b-side)

by yeastlings



Series: the day the sun fell [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Mythology, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, Past Lives, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 10:35:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24848395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeastlings/pseuds/yeastlings
Summary: Once upon a time there was a fox who watched a bird fall from the sky.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Miya Atsumu
Series: the day the sun fell [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1652905
Comments: 3
Kudos: 40





	there are no fated goodbyes (b-side)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [there are no fated goodbyes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24604414) by [trilobites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/trilobites/pseuds/trilobites). 



> Originally left as a comment on trilobites' story, "there are no fated goodbyes" (see link above). This story is short enough that it will make sense without having read that story, but I highly recommend that you do so that you can get the full breadth of this universe.

Once upon a time, at the foot of a mountain range watched over by a god who was a boy and guarded by a boy who was a bird, there lived a fox. He was an ordinary fox without the nine tails or the magic of his cousins the kitsune. Nevertheless, he was happy. He had a brother, a twin, and together the two of them roamed the woods chasing rabbits and stealing eggs from birds' nests. The woods were vast and full of new sights and sounds for the fox to explore every day, so he never gave a thought to what might lie beyond them.

One day, the fox gave chase to a rabbit more fleet-footed than the rest of its kin. It led him further than he had gone before, and before long he could no longer even hear his brother shouting for him to come back. The ground grew steep under his feet, grass gave way to gravel, but it was not until the rabbit's blood dripped warm from his mouth that he realized that he stood on the god's mountainside. Though foxes were not forbidden to be there, they all preferred to avoid it, for the crows who guarded the mountain were fierce and quick to defend any perceived slights. The fox was about to leave when he heard a powerful beating of wings, like the wind during a storm, and looked up to see a phalanx of crows take flight. Their black wings blotted out the sky and cast the fox and the mountainside in shadow.

He watched in awe. How wonderful it would be to launch oneself into the heavens and know what sights and sounds lay there. He had no wings, but he had four steady legs, so he continued climbing up the mountainside as far as he dared, right up to the edge of the god's sacred territory. There he stood on a ledge and let the wind ruffle his fur. Beneath him, the woods stretched out in a dark green carpet, and for the first time the fox could see that it ended. What lay beyond there? He would have to bring his brother here to see, and then convince him to venture beyond the boundaries they had always taken for granted.

The fox was about to return when out of the corner of his eye, he saw another pair of wings beating through the air. It was another crow. This one was smaller than his companions, with wings that even the earth-bound fox pitied. He made slow progress as he struggled against the wind, and the fox watched in fascination. Where was this bird going? What did he want so badly that he would defy his own weakness? The fox saw the little bird approach a three-legged crow and plead with it; he saw the arrow cut through the air; he shouted, but he was too far away to be heard. The arrow struck the three-legged crow through the heart and it fell, a silk-covered object clutched in its claws. Was that what the little bird had wanted?

The fox dashed down the mountainside. There was no way he could save the three-legged crow, but perhaps he could retrieve the object it held and give it to the little bird. He didn't know why that mattered to him, only that he was moved by how much the little bird had struggled. The fox ran in the direction the three-legged crow had fallen. He collected his brother and made him search as well. For three days and three nights the fox and his brother covered every inch of the forest where the crow could have fallen; on the fourth day, the fox found several shards of shining glass with silk threads snagged in their jagged edges.

He collected all the shards he could find and wrapped them carefully in several leaves; and then he set off for the mountain and the little bird who dwelled at its peak.


End file.
